This invention relates generally to flower containers, and more particularly, to disposable, resilient retainers for use in removably attaching a mating lid to the flower container.
It recently has become popular to sell flower arrangements along with items that can be used by the purchaser after the flowers are no longer fresh and have been discarded. For example, arrangements are now frequently sold in useful containers such as cookie jars, coffee pots and the like, which have mating, detachable lids. Florists have encountered difficulty in selling arrangements in such two-piece containers, however, because of the lack of a convenient device for securing the lid to the container at the time of the sale.
Several different techniques and devices have been used in the past to secure the lids to the containers at the time of the sale. One such technique has been to affix the lid directly to the container's side using adhesive tape. Although this technique is generally effective at securing the lid, the high visibility of the tape and the inappropriate position of the lid on the side of the container create an overall appearance that detracts from the beauty of the accompanying flower arrangement.
Another technique for securing a lid to a flower container is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,521,990, issued in the name of John F. Murray and entitled "RETAINER FOR ATTACHING FLORAL CONTAINER LID." The retainer depicted in that application includes a crossbar releasably enagable with the lid, and a shaft fixed to the crossbar and extending generally perpendicular from it. The far end of the shaft is received within and supported by a body of stalk-supporting material located within the container, and the crossbar is retained by a pair of spaced, opposed recesses formed on the lid's underside.
Although the retainer shown in the referenced patent application is generally effective in securing a lid to its corresponding container, it has not proven to be entirely satisfactory. In many lid configurations, the crossbar must have a precise relative size in order to be securely retained by the lid recesses. This can be a significant problem when the container and mating lid are not themselves formed to a precise tolerance.
It should therefore be appreciated that there is a need for an improved retainer that can be conveniently used to attach a lid to a container simultaneously being used to hold a flower arrangement, even though the lid and container might have very imprecise dimensions. The represent invention fulfills this need.